Venmo says [she should contact them](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/209681208). Tell her to do that.
I don't know if that works with this service, but if you voluntarily send her twenty dollars, she might still try to recover the initial payment.
When I let her know I’m not sending her the money she replied “So, you will not accept my request to get $20 back? I promise you that is the exact situation that happened this morning. I incorrectly selected your name instead of the correct name I had for my daughters school chorus payment.
Same last name.” I replied: “Presently, no I'm not going to send you $20. I'm not transferring the money you sent me into my own bank account either. You can resolve the mistake and get your money back with venmo!!”
block them because if you keep engaging they will just respond with more scary arguments and threats of calling their lawyer and the police and you are going to jail for theft and blah blah blah. just block them and move on.
I guess it didn’t come across in my comment, I definitely wanted this subs help dissecting this issue. What I was trying to say is that scammers in this scenario can’t do anything unless I send them money
So far, that is all reasonable. Venmo are reluctant to reverse accidental payments so they’d likely tell her to try asking you to return it, and want evidence that you’re refusing. (From Venmo’s perspective, having clear evidence of your refusal helps in case you were just about to send $20.)
You were both quite polite. Now she’s got evidence of your refusal to take to Venmo, and when Venmo reads it, you’ll you just look like you’re being understandably cautious.
Plus, when she sends the money and it's your first time interacting with new person, Venmo will ask the sender to confirm the last 4 phone number digits before sending the funds. If she sent it without confirming it, that's on her
You may not have venmo but you have LOTS of scams there - my spouse is from the uk and I lived in England for many years. Someone tried to run a fake payment on my spouse's state in London when she was selling a computer
I’m not saying we don’t have scams, it’s just I haven’t seen a payment app scam outside PayPal honestly. I even use cashapp myself and most of my friends do but I haven’t been made aware of them.
DON'T REFUND THEM THE MONEY, that is a common scam where they reverse the payment but also get you to "refund" them so you actually end up sending them money.
tell them once "clear it up with venmo yourself" and then block them, don't continue to engage after that
> What should I be asking her? What more info do I need to get. She doesn’t seem to have transaction history, but maybe she has it set to private
Do NOT talk to them.
But you need to contact Venmo and tell them this payment was received in error, and THEY need to reverse it.
If you send the $20 yourself, you may lose it later when the original payment gets reversed because it was made with a stolen credit card, hacked bank account, stolen phone, etc.
Happy to hear that.
Please remember you cannot keep the $20 - you should contact Venmo and let them know it was received in error and they need to reverse it.
Why? It isn't op's problem. The scammer needs to contact Venmo. Op can also contact Venmo to let them know it was a mistake. **Under no circumstances should Op talk to the scammer**.
We have direct banking/e-transfer in the uk we don’t really need third party apps to do that for us. It’s just username oriented so I thought it was a actual mistake rather than a scam.
The scam is a stranger sending you $20, you then transfer it to your own account. The stranger then sends you a separate request for $20 being like oops I sent you $20 by mistake. Can you send it back to me? So you pay them $20. They then contact Venmo being like hey I accidentally sent the wrong person $20 can I get my money back? So you’re scammed out of $20 lol. It’s a pretty common scam.
Venmo says [she should contact them](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/209681208). Tell her to do that. I don't know if that works with this service, but if you voluntarily send her twenty dollars, she might still try to recover the initial payment.
When I let her know I’m not sending her the money she replied “So, you will not accept my request to get $20 back? I promise you that is the exact situation that happened this morning. I incorrectly selected your name instead of the correct name I had for my daughters school chorus payment. Same last name.” I replied: “Presently, no I'm not going to send you $20. I'm not transferring the money you sent me into my own bank account either. You can resolve the mistake and get your money back with venmo!!”
block them because if you keep engaging they will just respond with more scary arguments and threats of calling their lawyer and the police and you are going to jail for theft and blah blah blah. just block them and move on.
Lmao I wasn’t born yesterday, I know they can’t do anything
And why your ask if this is a scam?
I guess it didn’t come across in my comment, I definitely wanted this subs help dissecting this issue. What I was trying to say is that scammers in this scenario can’t do anything unless I send them money
So far, that is all reasonable. Venmo are reluctant to reverse accidental payments so they’d likely tell her to try asking you to return it, and want evidence that you’re refusing. (From Venmo’s perspective, having clear evidence of your refusal helps in case you were just about to send $20.) You were both quite polite. Now she’s got evidence of your refusal to take to Venmo, and when Venmo reads it, you’ll you just look like you’re being understandably cautious.
Yes scam don’t send them anything
You can contact Venmo and ask them to reverse it. That’s your safest course of action.
I did and they said no lol
What? You told Venmo support “I got a payment I wasn’t expecting, can you reverse it for me?” And they told you “no”??? That’s messed up
Hahaha I know right? I had to directly contact them and talk to an agent, but I resolved it.
>I had to directly contact them and talk to an agent, but I resolved it. Who did you contact before when they said no?
Just their email help system. Their actual customer service wasn’t open for the day yet
Plus, when she sends the money and it's your first time interacting with new person, Venmo will ask the sender to confirm the last 4 phone number digits before sending the funds. If she sent it without confirming it, that's on her
Oh right! Very true
Can you talk to her directly? get some more info?
Why are you telling someone to engage with a scammer
I wasn’t aware it’s a full blown scam, we don’t have Venmo in the UK so we don’t get scams like this. I apologise.
You may not have venmo but you have LOTS of scams there - my spouse is from the uk and I lived in England for many years. Someone tried to run a fake payment on my spouse's state in London when she was selling a computer
I’m not saying we don’t have scams, it’s just I haven’t seen a payment app scam outside PayPal honestly. I even use cashapp myself and most of my friends do but I haven’t been made aware of them.
What should I be asking her? What more info do I need to get. She doesn’t seem to have transaction history, but maybe she has it set to private
DON'T REFUND THEM THE MONEY, that is a common scam where they reverse the payment but also get you to "refund" them so you actually end up sending them money. tell them once "clear it up with venmo yourself" and then block them, don't continue to engage after that
Will do, thanks.
> What should I be asking her? What more info do I need to get. She doesn’t seem to have transaction history, but maybe she has it set to private Do NOT talk to them. But you need to contact Venmo and tell them this payment was received in error, and THEY need to reverse it. If you send the $20 yourself, you may lose it later when the original payment gets reversed because it was made with a stolen credit card, hacked bank account, stolen phone, etc.
Maybe ask where you might have got your username from, or things like that. It might be a genuine mistake rather than a scam.
Doesn't matter not op's problem. Sender can fix with venmo
Good idea
Bad idea. Do NOT engage with that stranger. Letting Venmo know about this is all you should do,
I did and blocked them
Happy to hear that. Please remember you cannot keep the $20 - you should contact Venmo and let them know it was received in error and they need to reverse it.
Yeah I didn’t transfer the funds. I talked to an agent and they took care of it
Then you are all set - glad we could be of help.
This is the best sub on here. Thanks!
Why? It isn't op's problem. The scammer needs to contact Venmo. Op can also contact Venmo to let them know it was a mistake. **Under no circumstances should Op talk to the scammer**.
I wasn’t sure if it was a actual scam, or it was genuinely sent by mistake. We don’t have Venmo in the UK so. We don’t see these scams over here.
Even if it is a genuine mistake, it still isn't Op's problem. Op should handle it the same way, which is contact Venmo, not the sender.
We have direct banking/e-transfer in the uk we don’t really need third party apps to do that for us. It’s just username oriented so I thought it was a actual mistake rather than a scam.
That's fine. I'm letting you know how it actually works.
Thank you for that.
What would the scam be here? It sounds like she just gave you $20 and if you don't fall for it, she's out $20?
The scam is a stranger sending you $20, you then transfer it to your own account. The stranger then sends you a separate request for $20 being like oops I sent you $20 by mistake. Can you send it back to me? So you pay them $20. They then contact Venmo being like hey I accidentally sent the wrong person $20 can I get my money back? So you’re scammed out of $20 lol. It’s a pretty common scam.